Unsolved Mysteries : May 2015

'Door to Hell' has been burning for 40 years

The origin of Turkmenistan's Darvaza Crater – nicknamed the "door to hell" – is disputed, but the theory most widely accepted involves a Soviet expedition to explore for gas.

A Turkmen geologist claims the borehole was set alight in 1971 after fears it was emitting poisonous gases. It has now been burning for 40 years.

The crater, which is 69 metres wide and 30 metres deep, is located in a natural gas field in Ahal Province in Turkmenistan, which has the sixth largest reserves in the world.

George Kourounis, a Canadian explorer, became the first person known to have ventured into the pit last year, though footage of his expedition first aired this week on National Geographic, which partly funded the expedition. The aim was to collect soil samples from the bottom of the pit, to try to establish whether life can exist in such a harsh environment.

"The story behind how [the crater] came into existence has been sort of shrouded in mystery, and there's no other place like it on Earth," Kourounis told National Geographic. "It is very unique, in that there's no other place where there is this pit of burning methane that's being ejected from the ground at high pressure".

Nowadays the site of the pit has become a significant tourist attraction with visitors from all over the world traveling to see it for themselves. It isn't clear how long the spectacle will last before the fire goes out.

'Gateway to Hell' fiery pit found in China

Geologists have been investigating a glowing orange hole that opened up on a Chinese mountain. The peculiar spectacle was first discovered around a week ago by builders and local villagers near Urumqi, the capital of China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

The intense heat and bright orange glow of the hole led to it being nicknamed the "Gateway to Hell", a similar moniker to the "Door to Hell" natural gas fire in Turkmenistan which has been burning continuously for over 40 years.

"The air blasting out of the hole is so hot, that if you hold a branch near to it it bursts into flames,"

said geologist Hu Tan. "Although it is unusual, we're pretty certain that it has been caused by the spontaneous combustion of coal." His colleague Cao Jianwen recorded a temperature of 792 degrees Celsius.

This isn't actually the first time a pit like this has opened up in the region either, especially given that the area had once been home to an active coal mine back in the 1970s.

This one however is unlikely to be around for much longer as concerns over fumes emenating from the hole have prompted authorities to begin efforts to seal it off.

Loch Ness Monster

The Loch Ness Monster is claimed to be a prehistoric creature that inhabits the Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. As lake monsters go, Scotland has tales of a fair few, with Nessie gaining the most popularity of all on the back of anecdotal evidence.

Nessie first hit the headlines in 1933 when a story was published in the Inverness Courier. The report quoted a Londoner who had visited a few weeks earlier as seeing: "a most extraordinary form of animal... the nearest approach to a dragon or pre-historic animal that I have ever seen in my life."

After that, more sightings were reported and this unexplained phenomena hit international headlines. That same year, one motorcyclist claimed to nearly hit Nessie late one night as it lumbered across the road and slid back into the loch. Soon, apparent photos of the Loch Ness Monster were published.

In 1960, an aeronautical engineer filmed a hump crossing the water in Loch Ness in a powerful wake unlike that of a boat.

Years later, digital enhancement of the footage revealed what seemed to be the rear body, flippers, and two more humps of a plesiosaur-like body. The technician said: "Before I saw the film, I thought the Loch Ness Monster was a load of rubbish. Having done the enhancement, I'm not so sure."

There's no doubt that the story of Nessie has drawn huge tourist interest to the famed Loch Ness. But should it be considered one of the genuine unexplained mysteries of the world? While some people believe the monster is a living plesiosaur, New Scientist points out that such a creature could not physically lift its head up out of the water like the photos and anecdotes suggest.

The most compelling evidence of its non-existence is that the loch is a mere 10,000 years old - and was frozen solid for about 20,000 years before that. For a prehistoric monster claimed to be millions of years old, the numbers just don't add up.

Stonehenge

Stonehenge is one of the greatest unexplained mysteries of the world. It's certainly no hoax (estimated to be more than 5,000 years old) and is probably the most important prehistoric monument in the whole of Britain.

When you visit Stonehenge, you'll find yourself driving for miles through rolling hills and countryside until, suddenly, you catch sight of this bizarre structure. There's an eerie feel to the area around Stonehenge, and for thousands of years it has soon silently, giving away few clues as to the meaning of its existence.
Excavations have revealed that Stonehenge was built in four stages:

First a series of holes were dug around 3,100 BC for religious ceremony.
Then, more than 1,000 years later, the most dramatic stage of building took place. Huge bluestones from mountains in Wales were lugged more than 240 miles to the Stonehenge site. Why would anyone do this in the age before the wheel? And how would they accomplish such a feat? These are true unexplained mysteries - because it really wouldn't have been hard to find rocks closer nearby. The stones were then set up to form an incomplete double circle, aligned perfectly with the midsummer sunrise.
The third stage in 2,000 BC saw the arrival of the more stones, transported by land from the Marlborough Downs some 25 miles away.
Finally, after a further 500 years had passed, someone felt the need to rearrange the massive Welsh bluestones into the familiar horseshoe and circle we see today.

One of the great unexplained mysteries of ancient man, the meaning of Stonehenge is still not clear today. Was it a temple, a burial ground, an observatory, or an ancient calendar?

The Origin Of Earth’s Oceans

Water covers about 70 percent of our planet’s surface. Initially, scientists believed that Earth formed dry, with a molten surface created by the impacts of other objects from space. Collisions with asteroids and wet comets supposedly brought water to our planet much later. “Some people have argued that any water molecules that were present as the planets were forming would have evaporated or been blown off into space,” said geologist Horst Marschall. “[Scientists thought that] surface water as it exists on our planet today must have come much later—hundreds of millions of years later.”

But a new study shows that Earth had water on its surface when it formed, enough for life to have evolved earlier than originally believed. The same may be true for other planets in our inner solar system before their environments turned hostile.

To determine when water arrived on Earth, researchers compared two sets of meteorites. The first set, carbonaceous chondrites, are the most ancient meteorites ever identified. They came into existence about the same time as our sun, before any planets developed. The second set of meteorites are believed to have come from Vesta, a big asteroid that formed in the same general area as Earth about 14 million years after our solar system was born.The two types of meteorites share the same chemistry and contain a lot of water. For that reason, the researchers believe that Earth formed with water on its surface from the carbonaceous chondrites about 4.6 billion years ago.

Bermuda Triangle Mystery - Facts and Myths

Bermuda Triangle is a strange triangular area on the Atlantic ocean where many ships sailing through it or planes passing over it have disappeared without a trace. In few of such cases where wrecks could be found, the crew had vanished. And such incidents have been happening since centuries.

So looking for the facts behind the mystery of Bermuda Triangle? More than 1000 ships and planes have disappeared in the triangle area over the past five centuries and continue to do so. And all these happen when apparently there are no human errors, equipment failures or even natural disasters. Strangely, the ships and aircraft just vanish when everything seems to be okay. Many believe that Devil is at play here and therefore call the area also as Devil's Triangle.
The facts however are quite far from what is generally known or believed to be true. There are many stories and myths created through sheer imagination by writers who have used them rampantly to draw publicity to their books. In many cases, the facts got blurred. But one thing which is beyond doubt is, far too many incidents have taken place in this area for it to be ignored casually or interpreted to be just another normal ocean area. Well, I have been digging deep into the incidents and analyzing the facts and evidences. This section is an account of those findings.

So where is Bermuda Triangle located and how large is the area? Is there a map? And do you get to know when exactly you cross the line and enter the area? By the simplest of all definitions, Bermuda Triangle is located off the South-Eastern coast of the United States and in the Atlantic Ocean. The three corners of the triangle are: Miami (in Florida); San Juan (in Puerto Rico); and Bermuda (a north-Atlantic island).

The disappearances have mostly taken place near the southern boundary of the triangle between Florida and Puerto Rico. You can always argue that it's obvious because that's where the area of the triangle is widest and therefore such possibilities should be more anyway!
So the next question is why the name "Bermuda Triangle"? At the time of coining the term, the first name that came up was "Miami Triangle". But Florida objected saying that they would lose visitors to Miami with such name as people would fear to come there. So the next name taken up was "Puerto Rico Triangle". Puerto Rico too raised objections. Then it was the turn for the 21 square mile tiny island Bermuda which forms the third corner of the triangle. And no one seems to have bothered. Bermuda was then also known as the "Isle of the Devils" which fitted to the triangle concept quite well and therefore the final name "Bermuda Triangle" was coined.

Lost Planes & Ships in Bermuda Triangle

Here are some of the most amazing stories of planes and ships that disappeared while crossing the triangle area. As you visit the links, you will also see my findings behind such great mysteries of all times. In most cases I have discussed and explained the possible causes, in some cases I have also given excerpts from official reports that were produced by US Navy, US Air Force or US Coast Guards after completing the search operations. And in several cases, I have given updates on further findings.

Flight 19: The Avenger planes of Flight-19 took off from the U.S Naval Base of Florida for a routine training session on an afternoon of December 1945, but strangely this time they never returned.

PBM Martin Mariner: When all hopes for the above Flight-19 planes were quickly fading, two Martin Mariner planes (flying boats) were sent by US Navy to search them out. One came back, but the other didn't.

Tudor Star Tiger: Star Tiger, a Tudor Mark-IV aircraft disappeared in Bermuda Triangle shortly before it was about to land at the Bermuda airport.

Fight DC-3: The flight DC-3 NC16002 disappeared when it was only 50 miles south of Florida and about to land in Miami.

Flight 441: A Super Constellation Naval Airliner disappeared in October 1954.

C-54 Skymaster: Apparently it seemed to be a sudden thunderstorm that had disintegrated the plane. But there was much more to the story.

Mary Celeste - The Ghost Ship: Known as one of the ghost ships of Bermuda Triangle, Mary Celeste had many misadventures even before her mystery voyage in 1872. But this time, although the ship could be salvaged, none on board could ever be traced.

Carroll A. Deering: This is another ghost ship of Bermuda triangle which created one of the biggest maritime mysteries of all times. While returning from Rio de Janeiro of Brazil to Portland in Maine in January 1921, it was found abandoned and derelict at Diamond Shoals, off Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. But all the 11 crewmen including the captain were missing. They vanished for ever and never to be found again.

Marine Sulphur Queen: This 524-foot carrier of molten sulphur started sail on Feb 2, 1963 from Beaumont, Texas with 39 crew. It was reported lost in Florida Straits on February 4, and lost for ever.

Ellen Austin: The Ellen Austin, an American schooner, met with another ship in Bermuda Triangle. The other ship was moving in full speed but strangely had nobody on board.

USS Cyclops: Disappearance of the carrier ship U.S.S. Cyclops in Bermuda Triangle has been one of the greatest mysteries of the sea.

USS Scorpion: USS Scorpion (SSN-589) was a Nuclear powered submarine of United States Navy that disappeared in Bermuda Triangle area in May 1968.

Those were only few cases. Check out Bermuda Triangle Incidents for a list of all the major indents in the triangle area along with fascinating stories for many.

Popular theories solving the mystery

So what caused the ships and aircraft to disappear mysteriously? There have been many research and explorations done to uncover the mystery. There is no single theory that can explain all the incidents of disappearances. The ships and aircraft have been victims of different circumstances and situations. Things happened quickly and unexpectedly. While many theories have come out, there are few that come close to solving the Bermuda Triangle Mystery.

Methane Gas trapped under the sea floor can erupt, and as a result can lower the water density and cause ships to sink like a rock. Even planes flying over it, can catch fire and get completely destroyed during such gas blowout.

Sargasso Sea is a strange area that has no shores and bounded only by water currents on all sides. Many ships passing through it have been stranded and made motionless.

Electronic Fog, a strange thick cloud appears from nowhere and engulfs a ship or a plane. Instruments begin to malfunction, and finally the ship or the aircraft vanishes without a trace.

There are many other theories that try to solve or explain the mysteries of Bermuda Triangle.

And there are also theories that took recourse to some supernatural events to explain the disappearances.

Who built the Pyramids?

structures out in Egypt? The ones which were supposedly built to house the remains of dead pharaohs??? The ones you thought were built by the Egyptians? Well, you are wrong! THEY WERE BUILT BY ALIENS! Let's take a look at some undeniable evidence....

First, look at this diagram:

The pyramid is highlighted in red, and its two diagonals are extended beyond the end of the pyramid to the north-east and north-west. The mass of squiggly lines above the pyramid is the Delta of the Nile River, and, as you can see the two diagonals encase the Nile neatly and entirely. IS THAT A COINCIDENCE???
Yes, I'm sure that the way the Egyptians did this was to have someone walk hundreds of miles to the end of the delta and hold a really, really long piece of string while someone walked all the way back to the site of the pyramid. Then, those two people stood there while two more people repeated the process on the other side of the Pyramid. Just so that they could build a big building in such a way that its diagonals lie on those two lines.
NOW THAT IS LIKELY????
Here is what really happened: A couple of aliens, flying high enough over the earth to be able to see where the Nile Delta's origin is, easily saw what orientation the pyramid would need to be in order to have its diagonals lie on those two lines.

Second piece of evidence:

The big dark shape on the upper left of this diagram is the great pyramid. If you look at the compass rose in the bottom right, you can see that the pyramid is lined up exactly with the magnetic North Pole, a difference of only 16 minutes, or some absurdly small number like that (there are 60 minutes in one degree). COINCIDENCE? How could the Egyptians possibly have built their pyramid facing the exact magnetic North Pole without even having a compass? FYI, a compass was not invented for a few thousand years after the ancient Egyptians were long gone? IS THAT LIKELY????
This is how it really worked: Those aliens, abundant in their knowledge and drowning in technology, came along and using their compasses, they landed on earth and found the actual magnetic north and south poles. THEN THEY BUILT THE PYRAMIDS!

Now look at this:

This is a photograph of the Great Pyramid of Giza, and its neighbor, as seen from the Sphinx, on the evening of the summer solstice. As you can see, the sun is setting in the exact center of the two pyramids. COINCIDENCE???
For the Egyptians to be able to do this, they must have known the day of the summer solstice, and they therefore, must have known the exact length of the year, or 365.25; once again, a fact not discovered until long after the Egyptians were gone. HOW LIKELY IS THAT???
The real story goes like this: Those meddling aliens, in all of their infinite wisdom, saw the earth upon entering the solar system, and by calculating the size of its revolutions around the sun, the velocity it was at which it traveled and the angle of its axis of rotation, they were able to easily calculate the longest day of the year or the length of the year.
THEN BUILT THE PYRAMIDS!

Here is another photo:

This is a photograph taken on the day of the winter solstice from the entrance of the Great Pyramid. The Big shape silhouetted in the middle of the photograph is the Sphinx. Since this is only a photograph, and not a movie, you can't get the full effect. But even in the photo, you can see that the sun is tracing around the Sphinx's head. In actuality, the sun rises exactly at the left side of the base of the Sphinx's head. Then it traces it all the way around until it sets on the right side of the Sphinx's head. COINCIDENCE???
Had the Egyptians done this, since this occurs only on the day of the winter solstice, they would have had to have known the exact length of a year.
IS THAT LIKELY???
It's those aliens, who after finding the length of the year, found the shortest day of the year, and then built their Sphinx and Pyramid accordingly.

Consider this:

This above image is a diagram of the stars of the Belt of Orion. Now look at the diagram of the pyramids below.
Though this fact is not as remarkable, the positioning of the three Pyramids of Giza are exactly aligned with the position of the three stars in the belt of Orion, both in position and in size. While it is possible, it would create many difficulties for the Egyptians in terms of measuring huge distances. Not only this, but in fact, at the time that the pyramids were supposedly built (about 3000 BC), the stars that make up the Belt of Orion were not exactly at the correct angle to match up with the pyramids. If the location of the stars is traced back over thousands of years, the time at which the belt is exactly aligned with the pyramids is in fact 10,500 BC. A time when there were supposedly no
civilized

humans living on the earth. Another fact to support this is, if you consider the Sphinx, a lion with a human head and then look at the size of the body, you can see that the body is perfectly proportioned for the head of a lion, not the human head. This human head looks tiny and silly sitting on top of the body. This is because the Sphinx was actually built in 10,500 BC, around the same time as the pyramids, with a real head of a lion. Evidence to support this is that there are signs of water erosion all over the Sphinx. The last time that there was any water nearby, aside from the Nile is around 10,000 BC. Also, the constellation of Leo the Lion (thus closely related to the Sphinx), was in fact rising directly behind the sun in 10,500 BC.
Are they saying that the Egyptians built their pyramids to be in the exact shape of Orion's Belt, but purposely aligned them differently from what was actually in the sky? That after they built the Sphinx, they purposely made the head look small and funny? Then, they broke their backs carrying water from the Nile just so that they could put water erosion lines all over the body?????
In fact, no Egyptian did it at all. The aliens, with their plethora of wisdom, came down in the year 10,500 BC and built the Pyramids and the Sphinx. They built it with a head of a lion to match the Belt of Orion, as well as the constellation of Leo. Thousands of years later, Ramses, the egomaniacal dictator-pharaoh of Egypt, decided that he didn't like having the head of a lion on top of the statue in his land. So, he had a head in his own likeness constructed instead. But the Egyptians, not being very skilled at huge masonry, built the head somewhat too small.
Why is it that the great Pyramids of Giza, built in 3,000, are perfect, and still standing as tall as the day they were built? (Aside from the capstone and the polished stones, which were stripped by humans in the building of Cairo) The other Pyramids, which were supposedly built about 500 years later, all have shoddy masonry, and are crumbling down. An example of this is the famous 'bent' pyramid, which started out with the sides being built at one angle, then suddenly shifts in the middle to a shallower angle. This is because the angle at which it was started was much too steep for it to stand when finished. It is because the Egyptian pharaohs saw the great pyramids standing on their land and decided that they wanted pyramids of their own. But they found that it was much harder to do than was expected and ended up building silly looking structures that don't even come close to comparing with the magnitude of elegance emanating from the great pyramids.

Other startling evidence:
If you take the perimeter of the pyramid and divide it by two times the height, you get a number that is exactly equivalent to the number pi (3.14159...) up to the fifteenth digit. The chances of this phenomenon happening by sheer chance is remarkably small. Did the ancient Egyptians know what the number pi was? Not likely, seeing as it was a number not calculated accurately to the fourth digit until the 6th century, and the pyramids calculate it to the fifteenth.

What about the fact that even though the sides of the base of the pyramid are some 757 feet long, it still forms an almost perfect square? Every angle in the base is exactly 90 degrees. In fact, the sides have a difference in length of something like two centimeters, which is an incredibly small amount.

What about the fact that although the Egyptians kept very careful records about everything they ever did; every king they had, every war they fought, and every structure they built, there were no records of them ever having built the pyramids?

What about the fact that the Egyptians had not even invented the wheel yet, but the blocks that they had to carry to build the pyramids weighed about 2 tons each? 4,000 lbs.? What did they do... use cement? In fact, they used so much stone, that if you took all of the stone they used and cut it into 1 foot square blocks, it would extend 2/3 of the way around the earth!!!

If you take the line of longitude that the pyramid lies on and the latitude that the pyramid lies on, 31 degrees north by 31 degrees west (the fact that they are the same number is a coincidence???) they are the two lines that cover the most combined land area in the world. In essence, the pyramid is the center of all of the land mass of the whole earth!!!!

How about the fact that a group of modern scientists attempted to build a pyramid out next to the real one using modern technologies, and after something like 100 days, succeeded in building one about 1/40 of the size of the real one????

Did you know that the height of the pyramid (481 feet) is almost exactly 1/1,000,000,000 of the distance from the earth to the sun (480.6 billion feet)?

What about all of that fungi that was found in King Tutu's chamber? Fungi which has never before been seen on earth? What about the Pharaoh's curse????? You decide, who built the Pyramids?????

Lost city of Atlantis

The mystery of the lost city of Atlantis still manages to hold the curiosity of people across the Globe. It is believed that simple, virtuous people once populated the island of Atlantis, but as the land started getting corrupted, Greek God Zeus gathered the other God's and in a surge of anger and violence, the entire city and its people were swallowed completely by the sea. Evidence of Atlantis being a real place can be found in Plato's writings and have sparked debates and controversies for centuries.

Unsolved Mysteries